What Did You Do In The Garden?

ducks4you

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I keep three horses and right now, 9 chickens, so LOTS of manure! I have heard that each horse produces 40 lbs manure/day, only stalled for 1/2 the day, so I have to move half of it (~60 pounds manure/day), so getting enough fresh manure to heat the bed isn't an issue. I've been researching this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TfmP5cA-Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6khNRIGhE

I also have kept about 20 old windows, many of them are aluminum bordered, so they don't rot or rust, so I have the windows for the tops. Researching just cold frames, I can see that many are very crude, just well insulated:
https://www.thisoldhouse.com/how-to/how-to-build-cold-frame
I have researched other plans, but I like this one the best bc you can custom the size. I'm NOT a builder, so I'll start this in the Spring and probably it will take me ALL summer to get it done!
Like I said on another thread, my 3' x 6' "Salad Garden" is a raised bed with 8 inch tall wooden borders and they are starting to rot out. It sits by itself with full sun all day.
I think it's really good to try and I'd rather fail on a small scale. I know what you mean about scorching the plants, but I love the idea of hardening seedlings out in this, too. This morning I dug 1/2 of it about 8 inches below ground, and if I use it later in the Spring I can keep the seedlings out of direct Spring winds just by removing the windows. We ALL know these things need babysitting!!
Btw, we horse owners are good about letting our outside manure degrade on it's own! Horses don't like to drop where they eat. My 3 acre rectangular north pasture has manure piles in the corners and along the fence lines but very little in the rest of it. In fact, I'm buying a broadcast seeder to spread manure in it this Spring. I was watching "Garden Smart" and the host showed how you sift your manure/compost to get the pieces to be fine, and they you can spread it that way. My north pasture NEEDS fertilizer and it's $25.00 vs a manure spreader for $1,500.00
I don't care if it takes me a full week to spread it, it will be worth it. The program showed commericial fertilizer companies spraying it onto a lawn, again, in the Spring.
YOU know how it is---you get this idea about what you what and it keeps bugging you, that's me and a cold frame.
Also, live and learn. I moved a tropical hibiscus inside and it' been badly kept, sometimes in the dark, sometimes in the pantry with the ceiling light on for sometimes 3 days at a time. It is growing and loves it next to the south facing window downstairs in the basement. I think it may flower again, soon. I think that ice is what kills off our plants in the Fall, and like you said, scorching them!
 

catjac1975

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Yes, you should @ducks4you !

I've had a cold frame but never a compost-heated one! It seems like a good idea and might even be a good idea in the dead of winter!

The cold frame I put together wasn't so great. I just couldn't control the temperatures there on the south side of my garage. One sunny day, everything fried! My solution was to build something bigger. Still, some folks are very happy with their cold frames but I suspect that they weren't quite as small as mine.

Steve
Same thing happened to my cold frames.
 

ducks4you

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Winter gardening chores might be a little bit boring. This weekend I dug a hole to bury the flies from my flycatchers They look like this:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLcu0VkmOwE/T8ppuTqKhbI/AAAAAAAADno/9y4kN945Zg0/s320/050.JPG I also cleaned the ash out of my firepit, which looks like THIS:
https://www.menards.com/main/heatin...heating/incindio-fire-pit/p-1444422604896.htm, surrounded by 16 x 16 pavers,
https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...6-cobblestone-patio-block/p-1444441430577.htm
&
https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...6-cobblestone-patio-block/p-1444441406011.htm
except in grey (3 deep on 3 sides, 4 deep on the West side). I decided two years ago that I was tired of burning and sitting in the mud.
I took the ashes and covered the fly bodies with it. Now they are clean and dry and inside of my (2016 Mother's Day present) Rubbermaid gardening box that took the place of the one behind the tool shed that was rotting out. They each also have a new lure in them.
https://www.farmandfleet.com/produc...feedsource=3&gclid=CKGJmaHM2NECFZi6wAodvKYJHA
The picture is misleading bc I got 8 refills from the one bag. I ALSO found out last year that I was using them too close to my horses and chickens. They need to be over 100 feet away to lure the flies.
I also buy Fly Predators every year,
https://www.jefferspet.com/products/spalding-fly-predators?gclid=CKPwoeDM2NECFZa1wAodlYQPqA
and those make a big difference, but your chickens will eat them, so you cannot put them within 150 feet of your run.
I'm taking advantage of this January thaw to do some Fall/Springtime jobs.
 

thistlebloom

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@ducks4you I had a neighbor that used to use the predatory wasps in her paddocks and she thought they were very effective also.

A few years we had a lot of baldface hornets and I noticed the flies were very few. You could actually watch them hunting against the chicken coops outside walls.
Last year I left the paper wasps nests under the eaves of the animal shelters alone hoping they would also hunt the flies. I don't actually know if they did, seems to me I looked it up but now can't remember what I discovered. :p
 

seedcorn

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LOVE bald face hornets. Favorite food is yellow jackets. We had one huge nest in yard. Hopefully by they would call me back. So far, no
 

seedcorn

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If they were in their raspberries, they were eating insects eating raspberries. They are meat eaters, not vegetarians..... can't help stupid.
 

canesisters

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I ordered seeds yesterday!!!
Just_Cuz_13[1].gif
orjnfq[1].gif

Zuni Gold Bean
Crookneck0early golden summer squash
cocozella di napoli squash
makaronowa wasszawska squash
Henderson's bush lima bean
blue lake bush bean
rice pea cowpeas
cascidia pea
itialian pepperoncini pepper
red creole onion
purple dragon carrot
pink icicle tomato
roma tomato
true gold corn
Dakota ivory corn
milkweed - for the butterflies

(nope, don't ask, I have no idea what some of them are now.. they just looked good on the website)
THEN I went home and dug out the basket of leftover seeds from the last 2 seasons... I'm going to need to get some extra bales of straw! hahahahaha
springsmile[1].gif
 

digitS'

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I'd like to be ordering some seed. The freezing fog as been drifting down since before I got up - Yesterday! Dismal again today.

Your squash selections are unusual - a spaghetti type from Central Europe and what might be the original zucchini, from the description! I could almost try pickling again for pepperoncini!

Cascadia Peas: from what should be something of a hero for home gardeners: Jim Baggett at OSU. I don't really need an alternative, shorter snap pea version since I'm happy with Super SugarSnap, which was already shorter than Sugar Snap, but the thicker walls sound good.

Steve
 

Gardening with Rabbits

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Feb. 1 is almost here. I have started seeds on this date for the last few years. My onion seed is here. I have to go to town to find some kind of soil to start seeds. I do not have any finished compost this year. I am going to have to STRUGGLE to get to the shed in the back to get my trays and pots, etc. The snow is still deep and melted on top and now crunchy ice your feet get stuck in. I also have a busy week coming up. DH going for CT scan of chest, abdomen and pelvis and brain MRI. He has not had chemo or any treatment for lung cancer since Oct. and his scans will be kind of scary with the waiting. He will be starting a new treatment depending on test results. He is doing pretty good. Working on trying to get the water pump off the truck. I started making kombucha tea. I have 4 gallons going and one to harvest maybe today. I also started fermenting cabbage and it is very good. I am also thinking of starting kefir water and using the rhubarb lemonade I make to flavor the water and also blackberries, raspberries, strawberries. I am going to make the other kefir too with milk. DH loves kombucha and he thinks it is giving him more energy and I am wondering if it is. I am planning on starting a lot of cabbage to ferment and also cucumbers for pickles. DD has some Roma tomato seeds from some other country given to her, so she says she has to start tomatoes this year. She will be married in June and already thinking of what food she will be wanting from the garden.
 
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